I thought that there weren't any plants in the US that could fabricate full size stainless steel car bodies any more, ever since Budd closed it's last plant?It was my understanding that they had the last full car length acid bath dip tanks in the US at their Red Lion plant.Are the Viewliner shells made of smaller panels that are acid dipped first and then assembled or has CAF USA built a full size car length dip tank in Elmira?

---Electrical Engineer--- 5th generation from Harmon (Croton-on-Hudson, NY), home of the MTA MNRR Harmon Shops.B.S. Elec. Eng. Tech., Rochester Institute of Tech."I have problems sleeping at night when I can't hear the idling of several GE locomotives reverberating off the hills."

oh ok , there is a easy fix to that , ( i used to be a welder in the food industry , heaps of stainless ) . just use dedicated wire brushes , grinding dishes etc , so no iron gets mixed with the stainless . but i guess you cant fill a whole car body up with argon , which is how they ensure no impurities in stainless pipes etc .

If one looks at the history, Amtrak can't exactly expect to get new cars very often and the appropriations it does get aren't always enough to pay for the top notch maintenance that they strive for. So, even if Steel or Aluminum car bodies were cheaper, would they require more maintenance money and labor to keep them running as long as Amtrak's Stainless Steel fleet can run? Look how the NYCT R32's (first NYC cars to use stainless steel) have outlasted even the R44's.

---Electrical Engineer--- 5th generation from Harmon (Croton-on-Hudson, NY), home of the MTA MNRR Harmon Shops.B.S. Elec. Eng. Tech., Rochester Institute of Tech."I have problems sleeping at night when I can't hear the idling of several GE locomotives reverberating off the hills."